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SCRANTON — Lackawanna County’s final 2019 budget includes a $500,000 allocation to its employees’ pension fund, fulfilling a promise officials made when they unveiled an earlier version of the spending plan last month.

Commissioners on Wednesday introduced for first reading the roughly $127.25 million 2019 fiscal blueprint, which does not include a tax increase and is slated for final approval Nov. 21. The final version of the budget is approximately $650,000 more costly than the tentative budget, with the $500,000 pension allocation and other sundry changes accounting for the increase.

The final spending plan also includes a roughly $2.7 million general fund operating deficit that would shrink the county’s projected surplus from about $27.07 million to about $24.37 million by the end of 2019. Because budgets must be balanced, the county will draw from its surplus to make up for the operating shortfall.

The $500,000 pension fund allocation was added to the budget prior to Wednesday’s meeting and following a series of public budget hearings held last week. Officials had vowed to include an allocation, without disclosing the amount, since the tentative budget was released Oct. 15. In his personal budget message released that day, Commissioner Jerry Notarianni argued that failure to fund pensions “will have a debilitating impact on both the fiscal operation of the County and the retirement ‘nest egg’ of our staff.”

The county last contributed to pensions in 2016, paying $600,000 into the fund. No payment was made in 2017 despite a $1 million pension-fund allocation in the final 2017 budget. After Wednesday’s meeting, Notarianni said the county should contribute more than half a million dollars to the fund next year, but didn’t provide a specific amount.

He still hasn’t decided whether he’ll vote for the budget. Commissioner Laureen Cummings also didn’t commit one way or the other and efforts to reach Commissioner Patrick O’Malley were unsuccessful. O’Malley has defended the county’s lack of pension contributions the past two years, arguing the pension fund is in good shape, but promised the county will make a payment next year.

The final 2019 budget also restores $400,000 in funding for the popular Community Re-Invest Program that was slashed in the 2018 budget. The program provides grants for a variety of projects aimed at improving amenities, infrastructure and quality of life in the county.

In other business, commissioners voted 2-1 to approve an intergovernmental cooperation agreement with the Lackawanna County Land Bank, Carbondale Area School District and Fell Twp. The agreement makes Fell the first municipality outside of Scranton to partner with the land bank, which enables the entity to acquire tax-delinquent and abandoned properties in the township, clear them of back taxes and liens and market them to potential buyers.

Cummings voted no, reiterating an opposition to the land bank she’s maintained since its inception. Among other concerns, Cummings noted the land bank utilizes state gaming funds she said were intended to provide tax relief for residents.

O’Malley, who also serves as land bank chairman, lauded the partnership as a means of eradicating blight in Fell Twp.

Contact the writer:

jhorvath@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9141;

@jhorvathTT on Twitter

County to seek Charl-Mont proposals

Commissioners on Wednesday approved the re-release of a request for proposals seeking an operator to run a new version of the Charl-Mont restaurant at the former Globe store in downtown Scranton.

The county released an RFP seeking the same in October but didn’t receive any proposals. Nonetheless, county Purchasing Director Joe Wechsler said two parties that toured the Charl-Mont space during a walk-through last month seemed interested in the prospect of running it.

If the second RFP fails to yield proposals, the county can seek out and negotiate with potential operators without going through the RFP process.

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An inmate whose ear was sheered off during an assault at the Lackawanna County prison filed a federal lawsuit against the county and several guards, alleging the guards failed to protect him.
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In the time it would take Dave Fortin to reach Jim Thorpe from Dickson City on a nice day, he managed Thursday to make it from the bottom of an Interstate 81 on-ramp to the top.
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